A prior two-loop law enforcement retraining device is disclosed and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,831, issued May 27, 1990.
The conventional restraining device used by law enforcement officers and others consists of a pair of connected metal rings that can be locked about the wrists of a prisoner to keep him from using his hands or to fasten him to the law enforcement officer or to some other object such as a fence or a post or attachment to an anchoring member in a transport vehicle. These conventional handcuffs require a key, are bulky, heavy, and the oval opening defined, though adjustable in length, is typically not adjustable in width for snugly engaging different thicknesses of wrists or ankles.
In addition, when multiple arrests are involved, multiple sets of handcuffs may be required, which burden the officers with carrying a plurality of rather difficult to handle and heavy metallic objects. Such metal handcuffs will activate metal detectors in airports, courthouses, prisons, government buildings and other protected structures, thus giving rise to awkward, confusing and complicating situations during transport and legal processing of an arrested person.
Law enforcement work requires handling of individuals for transporting and transferring from one facility to another. For processing, booking, etc., the prisoners normally are turned over from one officer or agency to another, thereby requiring one set of handcuffs to be removed and given back to the first officer (who is transferring the prisoner to a second officer) and for the application of a different set of handcuffs provided by the transferee. Any change, or removal and replacement of the restraining devices on a prisoner is dangerous and provides an avenue of opportunity for the prisoner to injure an officer or escape while such transporting transfers are being made.
Further, each removal and replacement of sets of handcuffs necessarily inherently involves close physical contact between the law enforcement personnel and the prisoner. Such close contact unfortunately exposes the law enforcement personnel to the hazard of contracting disease, particularly so if the prisoner is bleeding or is coughing from respiratory disease.
Moreover, since a key is necessary to remove conventional handcuffs, the transporting or arresting officer may be assaulted in attempts to obtain the key. In other words, the use of the conventional, expensive, key-opened handcuffs as restraining devices provide a plurality of problems and risks when they are applied or removed from the person or persons to be restrained and during transport of a restrained person or persons.